Falling
by Proud to be Plug
Summary: Power has purpose. When that power fails, there are terrible consequences. One-shot. Set in far-future DF. Spoilers for Cold Days.


**Author's Note: I did a full reread of the Dresden Files, and this little one-shot sprang, half-formed, into my mind. I see it as being set at the end of the first book of the apocalyptic trilogy which Jim Butcher says will end his series.**

**To those who are interested - yes, this story marks my return to the land of writing. ****_Piece of Darkness III - Middlegame_**** is under intensive editing at the moment, and my hope is to begin publication in September. Said commencement of publication may come sooner if some people put a little more effort into reviewing Gambit. This writer-reader relationship has two sides, after all. ;-)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Dresden Files. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. 'Tis all for fun.**

* * *

**Falling**

* * *

_"__Did you think Mab spent all her days sitting in her chair and dealing with her backstabbing courtiers? No, Sir Knight. Power has purpose."_

_"__What happens if they get in?" I asked._

_Mother Summer's lips thinned. "Everything stops. Everything."_

–Jim Butcher, 'Cold Days'

* * *

"We need to—" he began, then stopped, his eyes widening as he saw something over my right shoulder. "Get down!" He grabbed my forearm with an iron grip, and yanked me to one side.

A glowing comet of dark, pulsing power smashed into the ground, the very spot where I'd been standing, pulverising the stone into fine dust.

I gulped. I can shield as well as or better than the next guy, but it would take a lot more than my bracelet of charms to stop that kind of assault.

"Thanks," I started to say, but Rashid was already striding away. He hurried towards the gates, his staff raised in the horizontal over his head, projecting a buffering umbrella of energy over him. I hurried after him.

As we neared them, the Outer Gates began to bend slowly inwards at their centre. I could sense the writhing mass of Outsiders just beyond the defences, even if I couldn't see them. The sheer number of them beyond the great wall was creating a grim aura of slimy, slithering energy, which filled the air like a rotten stench. As I jogged after the Gatekeeper, I could see dark tendrils of that alien power slipping through the tiny gap in between the two gates.

The defence forces were crumbling.

A terrible, screeching sound filled the air, as the gates began to bend even more. It was awful, the sound of a giant hand scraping down a cosmic chalkboard married to the dying screams of a thousand monsters. I clamped my hands over my ears, gritting my teeth, but Rashid ran on, seemingly impervious to it.

When we got within a few yards of the Gates, I realised just how bad things were. The great bolts which held the gates shut were straining against the pressure from outside. They were on the verge of snapping in half. Even as I watched, they were bending, very slowly.

"Rashid!" I cried, on instinct, panic rising in me. If those gates fell, we were, well—

"Doomed" hardly seemed to cover it.

The Gatekeeper looked over his shoulder at me, his tanned face set with resolution.

"Come on, Dresden," he roared, as the noise grew. "Follow me!"

I thought - I _hoped_ - that he was going to bound out in front of the gates and work some great piece of magic that would hold back the invaders.

Instead, he started running up narrow wooden stairs that were set into one side of one of the towers which held up the Gates. I started to protest, but I held myself back with clenched teeth. Rashid had been at this a lot longer than me, and so I simply followed him.

Together, we bound up to the top of the edge of the world.

We rose quickly. The noise of the gates bending grew more distant, but the relief of that was counterbalanced as the teeming army of alien demons became visible on our right hand side. I tried not to look down at them. Even without using my Sight, looking at that many demons in one spot would be enough to tip someone more clear-headed than me way over the edge. I focused on following Rashid, who moved with surety and purpose, as though he'd been up here many times, even though the wooden steps were covered in thick dust.

As we drew closer to the top of the gates, I realised that a small, wooden door was embedded in one side of the great piece of masonry which topped the huge structure. It stood at the top of the staircase, and as we came within several yards of it, the Gatekeeper reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a long, jagged bronze key.

Without breaking stride, he reached forward, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. I barely got in behind him before he slammed it shut again.

"Don't move," he said warningly, locking the door. He brushed past me, walking further into the room. With a murmured word, he brought candles all around us to life, illuminating the room.

We stood in a long, narrow place, with no furnishings or decorations. The walls and floor were all smooth, pale stone, and the ceiling was high overhead. There was no other entrance into the chamber, and no light source except for the Gatekeeper's candles, which floated in the air around the room.

At the exact centre of the chamber, dangling from the distant ceiling, were two huge bells. They were both easily my height or more, and they were both at least six feet wide. They were wrought from the same strange, silvery metal which the Sidhe used for their armour. The bright, slightly reflective surface of the bells shone and twinkled like a fine jewel in the golden light of the candles.

They looked way too nice to be anything good.

"What's this?" I asked, looking at the Gatekeeper. He was shrugging out of his long overcoat, and rolling up the sleeves of his pale shirt.

"An alarm," he replied, glancing at me briefly. "I need you to—"

A sudden, awful maelstrom of noise cut him off. It came from below - a high-pitched scream, coupled with howls of inhuman triumph. The sound seemed to thicken around us, like the aural equivalent of smog. I was tempted to clamp my hands over my ears, but somehow I knew it would do no good.

The Gatekeeper didn't flinch, only frowning more tightly as he walked over to stand beneath the bells. With a gesture and a murmur, he made two ropes unfurl from them. He took hold of one, and tugged gently, before nodding.

He looked at me, and pointed at the other rope, nodding at me as he did so. I nodded back, and walked over to stand beside him. I took hold of the second rope.

"Now," the Gatekeeper roared, over the growing noise from below. "Pull!"

Together, we pulled down on the bell ropes with all our might, again and again.

I can't really describe the sound that those bells unleashed. It was something that went far beyond the sonic - it was something deep, deeper than anything, a sheer force that went down into my very soul and told me that the worst had happened, that the end was nigh. We rang and rang, invoking a sound that was not the tolling of a bell.

It was the sounding of the alarm at the end of the world.

The volume of the deep, primal ringing rose and rose, until it was so loud that the hellish chaos below was drowned out and my ears began to throb with pain. But still we went on, making the alarm call out - not just across the surrounding Nevernever but, I felt sure, across the whole universe.

And, as I stood there next to the Gatekeeper, I understood. I finally understood the last cryptic warning Mac had given me, before he'd left his pub forever - before everything had changed.

_When the bells of hell ring out, the stars and the stones will tumble from the sky, and empty night will fall upon us all._

The bells of hell weren't something found in the land of the dead. They weren't some dark creation wrought by Beelzebub himself. They weren't magical artefacts which unleashed the ultimate darkness upon us all.

They were the alarm that rang when hell finally got into our world.

And so I rang hell's bells, as the Outer Gates fell and the ultimate nightmares entered our reality.

And I knew that the stars and stones would soon tumble from the sky.

And I knew that empty night was going to fall upon us all.


End file.
